Kafka's works were not widely known during his lifetime, and he published only a few of his stories. Most of his major works were published posthumously by his friend and literary executor, Max Brod, despite Kafka's instructions to destroy his manuscripts.
"I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we are reading doesn't wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for? ... A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us."
"What can any individual do? Of that, every individual can judge. There is one thing that every individual can do, — they can see to it that they feel right."
Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery serial, Uncle Tom's Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly, starts a ten-month run in the National Era abolitionist newspaper.
"His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."
In June 1914.
James Joyce's Dubliners, a collection of fifteen short stories depicting the Irish middle classes in and around Dublin during the early 20th century, is published in London.
Virginia Stephen, the future Virginia Woolf, writes her first work of fiction, a short story which becomes known as "Phyllis and Rosamond" when first published, posthumously.
"Phyllis and Rosamond" is a short story included in "The complete shorter fiction of Virginia Woolf" (1985). It is a lesser-known work that reflects her early experimentation with narrative form and character development.
The first Pulitzer Prizes are awarded: Laura E. Richards, Maude H. Elliott, and Florence Hall receive the first for biography (for Julia Ward Howe), Jean Jules Jusserand the first for history with With Americans of Past and Present Days, and Herbert B. Swope the first for journalism for his work for the New York World.
American writer William Sydney Porter died #OTD in 1910.
O. Henry's stories are known for their memorable characters, vivid descriptions, and especially their surprise endings. Some of his most famous stories include "The Gift of the Magi," "The Ransom of Red Chief," "The Last Leaf," and "The Cop and the Anthem."
It started very good: I was on our flat's balcony and my partner came out for a moment to look for something she had left on the table, completely naked, which turned me on so much that I followed her, took her into my arms and started to kiss her.
As we were about to make a step towards the sofa, we suddenly got irritated by voices, which seemed to come from inside the flat.
We separated and shouted "Is there somebody in here?" but the voices just
I can separate fantasy from reality quite well, and whilst I can totally immerse during the film or book and be totally shaken, once I finish or put them away, they don't bother me any more.
The only thing, I don't like is brutality and torture.
#Horror is, in my opinion, possibly the genre of #literature which tells most about the state of mind of its era, even more than #SciFi.
American writer, historian and poet Elizabeth Fries Ellet died #OTD in 1877.
She is best known for her works on women’s contributions to American history, particularly during the American Revolutionary War. Her extensive research and writings helped to highlight the often overlooked roles that women played in significant historical events.
"Like southern birds, whose wings of light
Are cold and hueless while at rest—
But spread to soar in upward flight,
Appear in glorious plumage drest;
The poet’s soul—while darkly close
Its pinions, bids no passion glow;
But roused at length from dull repose,
Lights, while it spurns, the world below."
LIKE SOUTHERN BIRDS. Poems, translated and original (1835)
~Elizabeth Fries Ellet (October 18, 1818 – June 3, 1877)
First appearance of E. W. Hornung's fictional gentleman thief A. J. Raffles in the story "The Ides of March" in Cassell's Magazine (London).
The stories were collected into one volume—with two additional tales—under the name "The Amateur Cracksman", which was published the following year. Hornung used a narrative form similar to Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories.
#OTD in 1140. The French scholar Peter Abelard is found guilty of heresy at the Council of Soissons.
This council was convened by the Church to examine his book "Theologia Summi Boni", which was seen as challenging orthodox Christian doctrine. Abelard's rational approach to theology and his emphasis on applying logic to faith led to suspicions among church authorities.
“Of aal the fish there iss in the sea,” said Para Handy, “nothing bates the herrin’; it’s a providence they’re plentiful and them so cheap!”
Neil Munro (1863–1930) – journalist, novelist, short-story writer, & poet – was born #OTD, 3 June. Rigby’s Encyclopaedia of Herring discusses Munro’s PARA HANDY stories, as well as giving the full text of the tale “The Herring – A Gossip”
"At times he regarded the wounded soldiers in an envious way. He conceived persons with torn bodies to be peculiarly happy. He wished that he, too, had a wound, a red badge of courage."